Emma's been fired before. Her 2014 comedy run didn't work, so they turned her heel. that was fun because Emma is nice to look at in NXT, but it meant nothing on the main roster. They fired her and brought her back because she was liked backstage. Then they tried Emmalina, which I admit I thought was going to make her a relative star for them, but she couldn't pull that off. Then she whinged about not getting any chances. I thought she might have been done then. They gave her a chance, she does alright, until it's time for her to get someone over, and she can't do it.

That's the job of a heel. Al Snow says it's their one job, but wrestling has broken down and become something a lot less focused than that. But that's what those matches were definitely for. How anyone can argue against that is beyond me. Asuka is making her debut, Emma is there to make her look good.

What is undeniable is that Asuka was less over coming out of these matches than she was going in. You can't tell me those matches got a fever pitch where the crowd was going ape-shit for Asuka finallly beating Emma. There may have been a smattering of applause or whatever, but her biggest pop was on entry because of who she was. Emma made her look worse. By the definition of what a heel worker is supposed to do, she didn't do her job. This is where you can fork, because the question is whether or not this is her fault.

On one hand, I want to lean with Destor. I don't think things are blocked out as exactly as people think they are. I really doubt an agent would have told Asuka to do the Ankle Lock, for example. I don't think Emma would have gone long or anything, but I think the particulars would have been largely up to them. And it didn't work. Twice.

The other side of this is that Emma may not have had as much freedom as we're saying, in which case, she probably should have pushed for a smarter match. She has not been booked well, so the very idea of her going six minutes with Asuka becomes a challenge. There's only so much cache you can have when you've been a joke for so long. But the company has clearly never had plans to use her seriously.

At the very least, I think Emma is at least guilty of not really having the mind to know what she was going to do was going to be suicide. It reminds me of when Bayley cut that promo that the crowd was begging her to stop, and she just kept going. Call it "doing your job" all you want, I think as a performer, an artist, a worker -- or however you want to look at it -- you've got to have good instincts, and Emma displayed that in the ring she just doesn't have them.

If she is responsible for leading those matches, then she's probably not a very good worker, and if the only role you have for her is making other people look good, and she can't do that, then what use is she? It'd be nice if everybody could be the top star in the women's division, but you've only got so many places. Emma is not shooting to the top of their list, so she had to be good in the Val Venis role. Except she wasn't.

Maybe she would have been better off staying in NXT (not that this is the purpose of NXT), or staying babyface, because then other people can make her look good. Maybe she should have been booked better if they want her to be the sort of main roster enhancement girl they want her to be. I keep going to say that it would be tough, but I really don't think it would be if she knew how to work a bit better. If she did the exact match they told her to do, then it is a bit more problematic, because it was doomed to fail in the first place, but then again, Emma was doomed to fail in the first place too.

I feel the need to state that I do subjectively love Emma. I got into her NXT run and I kind of like her style in the ring. She borrows a lot from puroresu and yeah, it's a bit fun. But I completely understand why the WWE cut her. It's been a long time coming.

Alicia Fox, as much as I don't care for the act, with all her screaming and theatrics, would have gotten Asuka over a lot more than Emma did. Think about that -- Alicia Fox is better at her job than Emma.

And, for the record, yes, Dolph did exactly the same shit with Nakamura, and it is as infuriating. He's also killing Bobby Roode on SmackDown. So I wouldn't be surprised if Dolph's name ends up in the release pool either.

Don't like the comparison of Dolph and Emma. Dolph has been over before and been at the top of the card. Emma never was.

You can play Dolph as strong and have a more competitive match and still have someone else get the shine for beating him. You can't really say that with Emma; it looked like Asuka was almost struggling with the dregs (that's what Emma is in reality because of booking or whatever) of the womens division. Asuka should have squashed her.

If anything that match made Emma look better and Asuka look like she has been overhyped. There is no way in hell that was the goal. I don't know whos fault that is though, but we can pretty much guarantee it wasn't Asuka. So that leaves either Emma or the agent setting up that match.

I agree with you on the specifics about Dolph, but he's fucking dead in the water, man. He hasn't meant anything in so long. It's a different way to get to nothing, but he's still nothing. And the result is exactly the same -- anyone who wrestles him comes out looking worse; not better. Especially as a heel, his job is to make sure that Nakamura and Roode get more over and that people are more excited to see them than less, but he did absolutely nothing for Naks (actually cooled him) and I couldn't give a fuck about Roode vs. Ziggler. Maybe Roode is super-over now? I'm happy to hear about how piping hot those matches were.

Intellectually, you might be able to head canon Dolph into meaning something more than Emma does, but no one really gives a flying fuck about him.

Oh, man, I used to be right with you there on Dolph. He's got his flaws, but the company have fucked him up too. Now he's in that tight spot where he's got to somehow give capital to people without having much himself.

Why do people (like Noid) keep saying Emma could not pull off Emmilina? That shit was done before Emma was even brought to play the gimmick.

That's why they canned it. They tested Emma out in the role and it sucked, apparently. I don't know why they ran the gimmick without testing it out first, but they did, and I can only assume it was a black mark against her name.

I am inclined to go with Dessy's inside scoop. Think Emma didnt shine Asuka the way she should have. They gave her another chance on Raw, she got all of her shit in again and got canned. My #FanTheory is that it was her last chance to show that she could offer value as a solid lower tier hand to give hot commodities some shine and she blew it.

Could be completely off base but I think that is how the stars line up.

That's why they canned it. They tested Emma out in the role and it sucked, apparently. I don't know why they ran the gimmick without testing it out first, but they did, and I can only assume it was a black mark against her name.

They tested it with pictures. On her debut of the gimmick Emma said she would not be doing it anymore.

Emmalina's gimmick was little more than "she's really hot" and not much else. That worked for Eva Marie because it provided a workaround for her genuine lack of wrestling ability. The gimmick boiled down to "terrible wrestler getting pushed because she's hot" and she was generating heat. She was the best heel in the company for a time because of that gimmick.

Emmalina couldn't have worked because we already saw her as Emma, know she can wrestle, and have seen her put on decent matches. The gimmick was doomed from that respect. It worked with Eva because we'd never seen her be a good in-ring performer previously.

I am inclined to go with Dessy's inside scoop. Think Emma didnt shine Asuka the way she should have. They gave her another chance on Raw, she got all of her shit in again and got canned. My #FanTheory is that it was her last chance to show that she could offer value as a solid lower tier hand to give hot commodities some shine and she blew it.

Could be completely off base but I think that is how the stars line up.

She doesn't seem like the type that aspires to be a "solid low tier hand".

Oh, man, I used to be right with you there on Dolph. He's got his flaws, but the company have fucked him up too. Now he's in that tight spot where he's got to somehow give capital to people without having much himself.

Could you not say the very same thing for Emma?

Also, can two people not get over in the same match? Asuka could have done more when she WAS given the shine, and Emma's back was essentially against the wall regardless. I know that may make her sound selfish in a sense, but how do you jostle someone around for 9 minutes without sustaining an advantage? She couldn't put Asuka away. That's the real shine.

I feel like the average viewer is not sitting there giving a fuck about either of the Asuka/Emma matches. That's left for nerds like us. And of the main Emma naysayers on this discussion, I might be the only one who watches everything regularly.

I don't think her popularity has waned because of Emma specifically. It's because of WWE doing it's usual ridiculous thing of...missing the fucking point.

Not Emma's fault. People have been far less fired for far more objectionable things. No fucking way it was those matches. She got hosed...unless there was something else...which I'm completely open to...but who's to say?

I guess I just prefer the NJPW method where youhave workers who are definitely booked stronger, but everyone is booked strong enough where there is always an "any given sunday" approach with undercard wrestlers. As a result, the division as a whole is stronger.

Squashes should be for local enhancement talent, not someone like Emma. And having watched the match again, I still stand by my claim that Asuka looked stronger. She's never been about squashes in the first place. Everyone gets their shit in when they face her. What makes her dominant is that she always wins regardless, and HER shit looks a lot mor brutal. I thought Emma did a good job selling that. Every shot she took looked like it killed her.

In any professional sport, any team should literally have a chance to beat any team on any given Sunday, or whatever. Wrestling is ridiculous enough in theory. No need to make things so glaringly obvious. Especially on a PPV.

I would rather they book Asuka as strong, but vulnerable, because I am 100% certain that if they wrote her as goldberg style dominant, they would write themselves into a corner and the end result would hurt her in the long run even more than people think this match with emma did.

Figgy, while i think a straight up assfucking of Emma would have started Asuka with a bang I am not saying that is what had to go down. The problem was Asuka didnt get to shine. She seemed average. It may as well have been Steve Lombardi going over Renee Goulet on prime time.

Instead of Emma being elevated to Asuka's perceived level of badassery (which wasnt even the point of the match but would be the only positive of being so competitive with a bottom feeder) Asuka was brought down to seeming equal with Emma. It was a good match but I think they didnt execute in the way they should have. Though Emmas shit looked good.

It just required subtle nuance. To me it was like 60\40 Emma. And she kept fucking countering everything Asuka did. She didnt need to die but there were points where she was just beating Asukas ass lol